Ronnie Woo

hangar steak with poached eggs and roasted beets

Beverly Hills-based private chef Ronnie Woo's culinary education began as a child growing up in Washington, with parents exposing him and his two older sisters to different restaurants at home and around the world. Later as a model for brands such as Banana Republic, Nordstrom's and K-Swiss, mixed with appearances on runways, Woo would develop a calm receptiveness that he applied toward his career in food, and which has allowed him to better accept feedback on his cooking.

When Woo launched his first brunch pop-up, last month at a private residence, it was due in large part to the requests of clients.

More »

Minh Phan/Beachwood Cafe

Chai-ginger hot cross buns

If, like any good Episcopalian, you feel that you should enjoy hot cross buns but, like many of us, you nonetheless loathe the yeasty rolls with their bitter bits of candied citrus peel, chef Minh Phan of Hollywood's Beachwood Cafe may have a solution for you. She replaces the citrus bits (currants and raisins are also popularly used) with crystalized ginger infused with tawny port and flavors the dough with chai tea and extra cardamon. The essence of the spent tea is combined with confectioners sugar and heavy cream to create the icing. As a festive spring touch, Phan crowns each bun with a tiny edible flower.

Hot cross buns are traditionally eaten by Catholics on Good Friday and by Protestants on Easter. In folklore, the magical buns are said to heal rifts, protect against shipwrecks, prevent fire in the home and ensure that all your bread will turn out perfectly if you hang one in the kitchen. (The frosting cross on top is a symbol of the crucifixtion.) And since you can't get them for one ha'penny anymore, maybe consider making your own.

More »

BEP Vietnamese Kitchen

Breakfast chao by Connie Tran

On Sunday, April 21, and every other Sunday thereafter, Connie Tran will take over Franco on Melrose for a few hours to create an eight-course, family-style, prix-fixe brunch with beverages like chrysanthemum tea, pickled plum soda and Vietnamese coffee.

More »

Amy Scattergood

Chicken and waffles at the Tasting Kitchen

Unlike some food holidays with questionable origins, International Waffle Day has some semblance of history, rooted in a narrative other than one constructed by a corporate brand. Celebrated in Sweden as Vårfrudagen, it coincides with the Feast of the Annunciation. In Los Angeles, waffles are less a snack than a meal; they're just as likely to pop up on breakfast or dinner menus as they are on brunch menus. And in both versions, the waffle often is joined by fried chicken. In honor of Vårfrudagen, we gathered some top spots around L.A. for traditional and not-so-conventional waffles.

More »

Photo: Dante Fried Chicken

Sock-It-To-Me Fried Chicken

See also: 10 Best Restaurants for Brunch in Los Angeles

Combine all of the biggest dining trends including food trucks, locally-sourced fare and pop-up restaurants and you might end up with an experience that looks and tastes something like the "Downtown Brunch Up" happening at Daily Dose this Sunday. Nomadic chef Dante Gonzales will leave his namesake food truck behind at this stationary pop-up, where he'll serve his Sock-It-To-Me fried chicken and coconut honey biscuits in the ivy-covered, brick-lined alley of Daily Dose Cafe.

Daily Dose, which exists in a narrow courtyard off appropriately-named Industrial Street in the downtown arts district, will balance out Gonzales' chicken-and-biscuits menu with their own locally-farmed scrambled eggs and fried heirloom fingerling potatoes. The Sunday feast, which runs from 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., is RSVP only and BYOB.

If you're not in the habit of doing either of those things, try these three other arts district brunch spots where you can get a beer on draft, a table without a reservation and ample free street parking on the weekends.

More »

Christine Chiao

Beef cheek hash at MB Post

See also: 10 Best Breakfast Spots in Los Angeles

Brunch is one thing that's done well in Los Angeles, a town that's very well-versed in mashups -- Carmeggedons I and II, for starters -- that grab more attention than should be necessary. And while it may not be the favorite meal service of chefs, this internal struggle is not transparent when you're enjoying Casey Lane's version of biscuits and gravy or a curiously well-coordinated composite of contrasts in the pastrami and eggs with slices of tart Windrose apples at Farmshop.

When tracing the lineage of L.A.'s approach, it's less in the New York City tradition of eggs Benedict and bagels with lox, and more circa 1930s Hollywood when stars made late morning meals a part of their travel itineraries. It may explain why in L.A. brunch became a meal that rolls with the punches of late nights and later mornings, defined more by its social nature than the exact content of your plate.

This may also be the reason why chefs and cooks in town have adopted various interpretations to brunch: Breakfast entrees with lunch-type accoutrements; breakfast as lunch; lunch as breakfast. Given the temporary permissibility of daytime drinking, it's what is in your glass -- beer, wine, mimosa, bellini -- that seems to tie the whole operation together. Or mugs for that matter, with many restaurants refilling your order of coffee often and without prompt as you catch up with friends over eggs and toast.

More »

Dan Cox

Mimosa at The Misfit

For those who see brunch as an extension of weekend festivities, there is the bottomless mimosa, a drink that is kept refilled until you either call it quits or brunch hours end. It's typically made of equal parts sparkling wine (more often Champagne) and chilled orange juice (preferably fresh-squeezed), but there are restaurants who pour in other types of juice in lieu: Pomegranate, strawberry, and grapefruit, to name a few.

More »

Phaidon

How to Boil an Egg

In this new year of chef cookbooks and kitchen resolutions, sometimes you simply want to fine tune the basics: the perfect pork chop, the creamiest ice cream, How to Boil an Egg. In her latest book, Rose Carrarini, owner of Paris' Rose Bakery, reminds us just how much of a culinary chameleon the egg has always been, an ingredient that changes with the times yet holds true to its earlier hollandaise and béarnaise days.

Carrarini is a British baker who often recounts her Parisian pastry welcome as less than enthusiastic; now, there are lines outside her café most days, with additional outposts in London, Tokyo and Seoul.

Not bad, amidst all that puff pastry, for a couple of loaf cakes (pumpkin with white chocolate, Welsh tea cakes, chocolate and orange polenta cakes) and scones of various shapes and sizes (whole wheat, chocolate, cheddar-leek-curry).

Get more, and Carrarini's lemon-ricotta pancake recipe, after the jump.

More »

A. Broder-Hahn

Eggs from Schaner Farms

What's in your cart, chef? This week we ask executive chef Charlie Parker of Freddy Smalls in West Los Angeles.

"I've got eggs from Schaner," Parker says. "We use them in a few things. Devilled, fried, slow cooked."

Schaner Family Farms is perhaps best known for their wide variety of excellent citrus fruits and juices, but they also raise several kinds of fowl. Over the past few years, we've seen eggs from turkeys, ostriches, quail, duck and guinea fowl as well as chicken. Their birds have a wide and varied diet, including barley mash from nearby breweries, vegetables that don't get sold at the market, and rinds and pulp left over from the production of their juices.

More »

Benny's Bloody Mary Beef Straws/Ben Hirko

Beef jerky straws

Celery is expected, bacon is everywhere, and those foie gras garnishes are off the legal table. Just when we need a little creative Bloody Mary garnish inspiration, we get Benny's Bloody Mary Beef Straws.

Iowa restaurant veteran and beef straw inventor Ben Hirko says he got the idea after a customer brought a few beef jerky sticks into a bar where he was working. He began experimenting with homemade versions and eventually found a business partner who shared a similar Bloody Mary edible straw dream.

Sticks of jerky are not "punched" to make the straws. Instead, Hirko and his business partner developed a custom machine to make the 100% USDA beef straws at a Nebraska meat-processing facility. Hirko also adds that they are not meant to temper stomach rumblings at the office -- unless you happen to have a 10 a.m. cocktail-friendly boss.

More »